Hypocrisy

" ... They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him." [Matt 27:30-31]

What would a peaceable man do if he is insulted?

Destroy? Burn? Kill?

Are we what we do, and not what we - and others - say we are?

And is the insult really an insult?

For is not the current behaviour simply proving that the insults are not, but rather truths?

Even if it is truly insulting, is the mad fury, the blind, unmitigated and rampant violence and terror, ever an appropriate response?

For even if justice is based on an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, the most that is justifiable - in any circumstances - is to trade insults for the perceived ones: a hurt feeling for a hurt feeling.

And is any insult so injurious and damaging, that any and every act is justifiable?

It is beyond imagination to think that riots, destruction and killing - accidentally or otherwise - are appropriate or proportional, the usual measures of just responses.

To be sure feelings are important, and people can and will die for what they feel. Feelings can move you to move mountains and swim oceans, and it is oft quoted that a scorned woman's fury is unknown in hell. But does not such willingness to wreck destruction, and even to die, for a dead man's image and name, borders on idolatry itself, something supposedly abhorred by these rioters?

Is it insulting to call someone hypocrite?

Of course I can lie or I can be wrong and mistaken. But what if it is true, that you are indeed one? Can a truth ever be insulting?

Sure I can say it differently, with or without considerations for your sensitivities, and again intentional or not. Your feelings may be hurt, but that's a different question from me being insulting.

I can speak kindly but you feel hurt, and conversely, I can intentionally speak to hurt, but you are entirely indifferent.

For if I speak or do things to you that are beneath your position or your stature does it diminish or change whatever your position or stature may be? If someone calls me a pig in anger, I can only find it amusing, and, to me, reveals his wits, or lack thereof.

And if my insult is based on a lie, is not the best response to expose my lie, especially if you demonstrate in your acts, peaceably, peacefully and incontrovertibly, that I am a liar, and not merely rant and rage and shout at me as a liar?

But if it is not a lie, even if my intention is to hurt your feelings, is it not for your good to know that the emperor has no clothes?

Or you rather continue in the comfort of your delusionary clothes, even to deny and forcibly and furiously suppress my right to say what I see and think?

Sure no rights are absolute. And my freedom to choose is curtailed to the extent it affects someone else's choices and being.

But should there ever be any restraint on truth itself? Or would you rather I not speak what I think and know to be true, but rather always concur, or at the least pretend to concur, with what to me is a lie or an untruth?

We, as fallible humans, are always vulnerable and susceptible to be wrong, and to believe a lie, and therefore should we not always welcome to be corrected and not to fall into a lie?

But on the other hand, if someone calls us a liar, because we are one, and he has found that out, then it will be our great concern that he holds such knowledge, ie if we want to continue to lie.

And then we are compelled to take appropriate actions to prevent and discourage him, and others, from knowing that truth. And certainly strong and vigorous actions, and not merely retort in words - or silence - are called for. And the more vigorous and more violent the response is, the more the better to deter and discourage, if not to entirely dispel, the knowledge of truth.

And so wisdom - or its lack - is proven by her actions.

On Miracles

Why are there miracles?

Simply put, miracles are a badge of authority.

It is like a policeman's badge being evidence that he is empowered by the law to enforce it. For as anyone can impersonate a policeman, so can anyone, claim to come in the name of Jesus. And there are many who easily proclaim, I do this and that, or say this and that, in the name of Jesus.

But having said that I must immediately add that such a miraculous badge is not really necessary. And this is so as it can be recognised, sooner or later, in one way or another, whether someone is truly doing or speaking on behalf of God, or for himself.

There is a similar analogy in the policeman's world. The law of the land is the law of the land. I don't have to be a policeman to tell you that you are breaking the law. And in fact the law empowers ordinary citizens to make arrest, namely citizen's arrest, or you can simple call the police. So I don't really need the badge to enforce the law on anyone, ie if I want to.

So anyone can truly do and speak on God's behalf without having to perform miracles. The question really is not of badges but of true knowledge of God and of a heart to do and speak for him.

Now the reason why such miraculous badges are not necessary is threefold.

Firstly badges can be faked. And this true certainly of policeman badges, of identity cards, and of passports, etc.

In the spiritual world, the devil have some power to do supernatural things too.

It is mentioned in prophetic books of the bible that in the end days, by miraculous signs and wonders, the devil will lead the lost astrayed.

And in the other direction in time, in history, when Moses went up to the Pharaoh to ask him to let his people go, Pharaoh demanded to know upon what authority is such a demand made.

And as you may know, Moses called upon a series of miraculous signs and wonders. But the first few, or just the first one, namely Moses changing his staff into a snake, was duplicated by Pharaoh's magicians.

Secondly it is a sign of insufficient faith to need a miracle to believe.

God have arrange so that you can know who is true and who is the liar, and who truly comes in Jesus' name and those who simple say so, from already existing human and humanly perceivably signs.

So really to need a miracle to believe is actually a sign of disbelief. It is akin to testing God, ie an attitude that says, if you say you are so and so, do this and that to prove to us, you are indeed who you are. And this testing attitude is betrayed especially when the test is a seemingly impossible one.

An example is when some people brought a man with a withered arm to Jesus on Sabbath day. Now the Sabbath day is a day when no one is supposed to work. And healing is work. So the people were trying to put Jesus in a catch-22 situation. Heal and break the law, don't heal and you cannot prove yourself. Jesus healed nonetheless saying that the law is not above compassion and love.

Back to the policeman example, do I really need me to show you a badge when I tell you that you are breaking the law? In fact the badge is entirely irrelevant. You have broken the law, and you know it yourself, without even me telling you, even far less the need for me to show you any badge.

So really to ask for a miracle is just an excuse for disbelieving.

And thirdly when you have seen the miracle, and upon that you said you believe, you are actually believing the miracle rather than God.

And the real reason for belief is that you covet the miraculous effects, rather belief in God.

And many prayers for healing and prosperity fall into this category.

And such people will go to any god or gods or goddesses, the moment they hear that these can give them their desired miracles, eg lottery numbers.

And I want to tell you about my friend here. He attends a church which is overtly very strict and regimented in obeying God's laws, for example the abhorrence of idolatry. And to him putting up a Christmas tree for Christmas is idolatry. But then he buys 4D, bets on English Premier League, and so on, he wins. And soon, he bought a feng-shui sculpture, some miniature water fountain, and placed it in the house.

Now it is not so much the sculpture or that it is feng-shui inspired that made it an idol, but it is the attitude and reason for installing it, namely that he believes it will bring him good luck. That is idolatory, to turn away from God and to put your trust and hope in something else.

But it escapes himself entirely, intentionally or otherwise, seemingly religious though he is.

And then I want to tell you about my late friend Mr. Tan as another example.

You may remember Mr. Tan. He has died, after many years of leukemia, for about half a year to date. His mother became a Christian. But really she was not as much seeking God as wanting Mr. Tan healed. And as all mothers do, they do anything for their son, even believing God, if that is what it takes.

And then Mr. Tan has a friend that works with him in the car dealing business. This friend told Mr. Tan why don't he go over to his god, some Tua Pek Kong derivative or other I think, since the Christian god is apparently not working.

And that is really the worst sort of testimony for a Christian. For instead of testifying that you believe because you know God and wants to do his will, you are instead showing the world that you believe God for his goodies. Your objective is the goodies. Who delivers the goodies may be a secondary thing.

Are you saying there are no more miracles today?

Well Mr. Tan died, despite the tons of so-called prayers prayed. But I am not saying no.

Like I said Jesus came not to remove poverty or sickness and diseases. He certainly didn't. And we have bird flu constantly threatening the world today. And he certainly didn't make the poor rich, but rather tells the rich to be poor.

But yet he did healed the sick in some cases here and there. To be sure some of them are a mark and demonstration of who he is, his identification badge.

But there were times he did not want to heal, such as the paralytic brought down to him through the hole in the roof. And yet at times he told those he healed not to talk about it. But then they did precisely the contrary and soon the whole towns were coming out to seek Jesus. But they come to seek to feed their stomachs. The seek a miracle maker and not God. They are seeking food for their stomachs and not to be reconciled to God. (See John 6)

So there may be miracles yet out of God's compassion.

But there will also be miracles of judgement, ie by very act of the miracle, God condemned their disbelief.

It will be like the case when the young nation of Israel have just left Egypt and was marching in the desert. God send down food, called manna, everyday from heaven, but they complained and said that back in Egypt they had meat.

And so God heard them. And he caused a wind to blow quails to land in the Israelites' camp. Israel ate meat, and then they died.

So should someone pray for a miracle or not? Pray, as in all prayers, in accordance to the will of God.

I am sure you are aware that anytime, anyone from some church is hospitalised, tons of SMSes will immediately flood the airwaves, asking the receipients to pray for the one sick, especially if the latter is dying.

Now surely everyone will die, one day, sooner or later, anticipated or not, and whether you are ready or not. Will praying for someone dying to live always work? Certainly not. Mr. Tan died. Some will die and maybe some will yet live, maybe for a little longer. But whether he, or even the apparently healthy, lives or die, is all in God's hand.

So if you are to ask God not to take his life this time, then you had better know why is should not be this time and in this manner. And how do you know that? For that you have to know God and be able to hear him. That is the wise way.

And even so, God may keep silent.

But then most would just blindly and mechanically go through the motions of praying, and will utter the usual words, the magic formula, the mantra - and maybe conduct some ritualistic acts with the arms or something else - just like the pastor who visited my mum in hospital.

Why We Pray What We Pray

An excerpt:

One of her visitors asked some pastor from a recently established church to come and pray for her. I happened to be there when the pastor came. And I wont go into details what he said and so on but just to tell you what is left in me after that.

And that is his gospel is the presently highly popular one, namely the wealth and health gospel, or the "name it, claim it" gospel. I talked about this some time back, in relation to testing God. And so he was claiming in Jesus name that my mum will be healed and so on, and suffer no pain, etc etc. It is kind of standard mantra that people utter at hospitals' bedside.

What's new is my realisation why people pray this way.

And what's that?

The poor and the sick will always be with us. When Jesus was on earth he did not go about to eradicate poverty or sickness. Instead he preached love. He did heal a few, because of his compassion - for example the case of the people hacking a hole in the roof to lower a paraplegic to a spot where Jesus can touch him - but that was not his primary intention.

Instead the poor and sick were given to us to love.

But we disdain such burdens, especially the burden to love. And I am sure you have felt such burdens before, either due to relationships, social customs or commitments. It is our natural self to want to be unburdened, especially that to love.

And so we pray, in seemingly caring language, that the sick be healed and the poor be blessed with work and lottery earnings and so on. But really they are praying for themselves. For if the poor can feed himself and the sick can walk, then you can love without need to demonstrate it, but just to say it, and without even your conscience accusing you of hypocrisy.

To pray for the sick to recover is really not love for the sick but to remove from yourself the obligation to love and care. It is easy to claim this and that in Jesus name, in a moment and to walk away from it, but it is not easy to stay, to love and to care, continually day after day, in silence, and in pain, and even unappreciated.

This is the most cynical view I've heard so far.

It may be so, but can you deny that it is not true? And actually this is also the short answer to why there is the poor.